


Honoured

by chlolou1208



Category: Emmerdale, vanity - Fandom
Genre: Adoption, Emmerdale - Freeform, F/F, Mentions of Johnny, Vanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:54:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24171637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chlolou1208/pseuds/chlolou1208
Summary: After tonight’s episode being cut short (fuminnngggg ngl) I decided to quickly write in a scene of Vanessa and Charity making up. I tried 🤷♀️
Relationships: Charity Dingle/Vanessa Woodfield
Comments: 4
Kudos: 67





	Honoured

“Yes because I can’t _bare_ the thought of you dying you _stupid cow_!” 

It echoed in her foggy brain, her tired eyes watched her fiancés mouth explode and tears build in her eyes, Charity’s heels clicking loudly on the living room floor as she storms out, the door almost flying off its hinges with the angry force she used to shove it open and then slam it shut again. Her heart pounds as she processes the barrel of words that were hurled passionately at her a few seconds ago, 

**‘He’s my kid’**

**‘I want him’**

**‘I love him’.**

She gulps, a painful lump stuck in her throat as tears threaten to over spill and come flooding down her cheeks. Her feet are moving before her brain catches up, she heads towards the cellar, the door as been left open slightly, as if, similar to the living room door, it has been slammed shut but the force of it had bounced it back off from the lock. A flash of a yellow cape, mask and a grey suit enter her mind as she walks into the cellar and shuts the door gently, almost laughing at the contrast between the first time she’d been in the cellar. Her _hothead-ness_ had gotten the better of her that day when she’d managed to lock herself and, who’d have thought it, her future wife inside. 

She hears muffled sniffles this time and a clatter of bottles, one must have smashed she thinks because the next thing she hears is a pained cry and Charity cursing the glass. She approaches the bottom of the stairs and, as she thought, there lays a heap of glass, a few had smashed and Charity is leaning over them with her hand clutched into her stomach. 

She moves over to her and kneels down beside the taller blonde, wincing as she feels a dull ache as she does and holding her breath so she doesn’t let out a gasp. Charity still hasn’t looked up at her so she reaches across and places her hand on Charity’s forearm. 

“Let me see” 

Charity’s head lifts, her cheeks sodden and eyes red and sore. She moves her other hand slowly off of her wounded one, and Vanessa frowns at the bloody slash across her left palm. She gently tugs it away from Charity’s hand and brings the hand over to rest on her knee. She reaches inside her pocket and fumbles with a packet of tissues for a minute, before dabbing the blood away from her hand. Charity doesn’t wince, she sniffles up every so often and doesn’t move her eyes from the floor. Vanessa finishes cleaning up the blood and blows cool air onto the cut, that isn’t as deep as she’d initially worried. 

She doesn’t let go of her hand but gets herself comfy on the floor, or as comfortable as she can be sitting on a hard, cold wooden floor. She sits with her back against the chair in the corner, mirroring Charity and brings her legs up to her chest. She turns her head to look at Charity, who’s starring straight ahead of her with an icy glare. 

Vanessa holds back her tears, she sighs and hesitantly rests her head on Charity’s shoulder, she feels it tense underneath her but then relax again. She can feel Charity’s short hair tickling her face and the smell of strawberries is overpowering. 

“I told Rhona that she’s be safest with him…that you didn’t want him and that I trusted her with him the most” Vanessa starts off saying, she feels the shoulder beneath her tense again and noticed Charity’s non-injured hand squeezing her knuckles together into a fist, squeezing…releasing. 

“And she is my best friend, I’ve known her years. And I don’t like you making comments like that about her,” Vanessa lifts her head off of charity’s shoulder and looks head on at her, she knows Charity is fighting the urge to roll her eyes. 

“But I know that you only lashed out because you were right…I have been, like ya said, a stupid cow” 

Charity looks up at her at that, tilting her head and softening her eyes as if mentally defending her. 

“I’ve looked at this all the wrong way, I hate that I’ve been ignorant towards your feelings, I hate that I’ve been so scared and…almost obsessed with planning stuff incase the worst happens and I’ve not even taken into account how this all is for you” Vanessa softly reaches for her other hand and untucks her fingers slowly from where they were pressed tightly against her palm. She feels guilty as she noticed the nail marks that linger there. 

“I can’t just blame it on the cancer…” She sees Charity grimace at the word and begins tracing patterns softly on her wrist, as if it encourages her silently to spill her thoughts to her fiancé. 

“I made a mistake, when you didn’t answer me back straight away after asking you to be Johnny’s guardian in the first place, I truly believed in that moment that you didn’t want him, that everything you’d done for him up to then was just to please me” 

Charity shakes her head and frowns. Vanessa continues before she can speak though, as if any interruption will prevent her from telling Charity how she feels. The thoughts will be buried and the petty anger will arise again to the surface. 

“I know that it’s not like that at all. I mean, I’ve seen how much you care for him…you’re always there for him, and not just because you’re engaged to me, but cos you love him like your own”  
Vanessa says and then sighs, she swallows and bites the inside of her cheek. 

“I’m wracking my brains trying to think of why I believed that...Maybe it’s because, all my life I’ve been reassured, like…I’d never do anything unless I was certain and unless everyone around me approved” Vanessa tells Charity, who stares into her tears eyes, her breathing slower now compared to the frustrated ragged breaths puffing out of the raging blonde when she’d first headed down to find her. She listens enlightened, Vanessa’s not one to talk about her feelings, despite her usually being the one encouraging everyone around her including Charity to share her deepest and darkest emotions. 

“I was angry that you didn’t answer straight away, in those few seconds you hesitated I came up with all these outcomes in my head, that you’d say no and Johnny would be left with no one, or that you’d say yes but not actually mean it and then you’d be burdened with him and reminded of me every time you looked at him…or that you’d say yes and be the best mum in the world to him and I wouldn’t be there to see it” 

Vanessa always rambled when she’s nervous or anxious or upset, it’s the one thing from the start that she’s found endearing about her. She’s grateful that she trusts her enough to spill her thoughts to her, she knows how it feels to tell someone something and not be judged.

Vanessa feels a thumb wipe at a single tear that had escaped from her bloodshot eyes. There’s bags that hang under them now also, more often than not, and she finds herself packing the concealer on her face to conceal her paleness and exhausted appearance. She looks up and into Charity’s eyes, they’re softer than earlier and her cheeks aren’t as red. 

“I’m sorry I called you a silly cow” Charity sighs, a small pout on her face. 

“I deserved it” 

“No. Well, a bit…” They scoff a laugh. 

“I only hesitated because, like I did try and tell ya before, I can’t bare to think of our family without you in it, I panicked for a split second because I’m only a good mum because I’ve got you here to keep me sane…” Charity shifts on the floor and moves into a crossed legged position, her thighs sore and numb from being pressed into the wooden tiles. 

“But, the more you pressed on with this whole…Rhona taking guardianship of Johnny stuff, the more I realised…you know what I do deserve to be his mum, because I take him to school and make him laugh and let him eat all his Easter chocolate early” Charity shakes her head with a small smile on her face, she looks at Vanessa as if to check if she’s listening to her, Vanessa’s hands haven’t stopped caressing the back of her hand yet she still looks at her intensely. 

“You do”, Vanessa nods. “You deserve to be his mum because you love him, not _like_ he’s one of your own, but _as_ one of your own” She smiles, reaching her hand out to smooth a strand of hair that’s trying to wave into its natural curls instead of the slick straight look her fiancé wears. 

“And I know better than anyone how special it is to be loved by the Charity Dingle” Vanessa says, her eyes piercing into Charity’s. 

Charity nods, swallows a lump in her throat and takes a breath, calming herself. 

“So… are you gonna ask me then or what?” Charity smirks.

Vanessa laughs and takes Charity’s face in her hands, “Charity Dingle, will you be our sons…crazy, amazing other mum?”

Charity leans forward and kisses Vanessa deeply, forcing her love through the electric connection forged between their lips. 

“Vanessa Woodfield…I’d be honoured to” 


End file.
